Thursday, 30 July 2015

Some may think that internet marketing is all about using targeted keywords and attracting as many visitors as possible to a website, hoping to make more sales as a result. While true, these things only scratch the surface of real web marketing, which gives emphasis on providing both prospects and loyal customers with value. Businesses need to rethink their approach if they rely too much on optimization and web traffic instead of providing their customers with what they truly need.

Two articles on the Entrepreneur website titled and discuss how ecommerce hinges on providing customers with relevant experiences through engagement. Ecommerce now plays a major role in business operations, and those enterprises that fail to adopt it are missing out on the many opportunities provided by the Internet. For ecommerce to truly take off, however, businesses need to build a proper web storefront that utilizes the latest in marketing techniques. http://bit.ly/1Jf4hTD

Wednesday, 29 July 2015

Social media is an effective tool for your business that gives you outlet to reach your customers and for new prospects to discover your business. Social media allows you to shape the perception of your company to your network and form different ties to connection through these different platforms. To effectively communicate on each social media network, you must make strategic adjustment to ensure your posts get noticed.

Here’s how you can strategically communicate in various platforms:

Facebook
Facebook gives you an environment to relate to your network. You don’t need to use a professional tone, instead, share tidbits about your company and post about charitable events or foundations your organization supports. Even though Facebook is more informal and relaxed, it is important to avoid excessive posts.

Twitter
Twitter is best used for short posts and quick updates. Frequent posting increases your visibility on people’s timelines because of constant updating stream. For your tweet to get noticed, catch commuters when they are most likely to interact – 5-6 p.m.

LinkedIn
If you are looking for the best B2B social media platform, look no further. LinkedIn provides a more formal business setting to network with other businesses, potential hires, and future clients. This is site is a great place to develop new connections and network with people who have similar professional interests. The best time to post on this platform is during a workweek, during typical work hours.

No matter what platform you use, it is imperative to personalize. Even though you are marketing to a large group, social media posts make customers and contacts feel like they are dealing with another person rather than an overbearing business.

Did you like this news and insights? Subscribe to http://marketingdigest.com/ for weekly online marketing news and insights.

Tuesday, 28 July 2015

Although there is a general consensus on what marketing on the Internet is all about, that does not stop certain myths from propagating. An article on Forbes magazine titled , and another article on Lifehack titled , have sought to enumerate these myths and explain them so that businesses can better understand how to promote themselves on the Web. What can be understood from both sources is that there is no exact science to web marketing, and what might work for one website might not necessarily work for another. Both articles stress that online marketing is not a numbers game; instead of focusing on attracting a lot of traffic and using big keywords, businesses should try to cater specifically to their target market using quality content. With quality content, businesses can also build trust with their customers, and even provide value, instead of merely “converting” leads. These two news features, and other helpful online marketing news articles from reliable sources such as Markehttp://bit.ly/1K3QDbF

Sunday, 26 July 2015

Business owners have the job of getting noticed in order to attract customers. This is especially true for those that are only starting out and have no real following as of yet. In order to remedy this, they turn to online marketing which has helped out many businesses big and small. One thing often overlooked by them, however, is local marketing. One of the biggest myths regarding online marketing in general is that there is no need for a web presence if the business isn’t selling online. According to recent online local marketing news by , “With 70% of mobile searches leading to online action and 50% of those leading to action, you need to be online.” Local businesses, in particular, need an online presence to increase the frequency of in-store sales and to raise awareness regarding the business.http://bit.ly/1K3Qs0f

Friday, 24 July 2015

By now, we all know the importance of digital and online marketing to a business. Knowing how equipped your company is to handle your own digital marketing strategy is a different story. For SME’s which have limited resources and manpower, outsourcing their digital marketing is the best option, while other prefer in-house marketing.

Here are questions to consider when making the decision to outsource digital marketing:

1 – Can someone do this better than you?
When it comes to digital marketing, the people that are good at it are from a digital marketing agency. Similar to how corporate lawyers would rather be a partner in a huge law firm helping many clients instead of just being general counsel for one business.

2 – Can someone do this faster than you?
Marketing agencies can work under pressure and gets to spin new ideas. They don’t need to look at the instruction manual when implementing marketing campaigns. They do it every day and it’s what they’re wired to do.

3 – Can someone understand this better than you?
If the nature of your business does not evolve around consumer behavior and digital marketing, it is best to entrust your digital marketing to those who understand conversions, search engines, online reviews, and more.

So why do companies hire marketing people? Depending on the environment, in-house marketing people live and breathe the business every day. They know the ins and outs of their industry and if an agency knew this, they are not the digital marketing for you to hire but your competition.

To know more about digital marketing strategies that works for SME’s, subscribe to this online marketing news website: http://marketingdigest.com/

Having a website has become essential for many businesses. People who go online and search for them are expecting to see a website that contains everything they need to know about the company. To this end, another thing that has become important is search engine optimization (SEO). SEO helps the website to be indexed in the search engine results and helps it climb the rankings in order to gain more exposure. According to recent web design news from , “From SEO and branding to conversion rates and more, your site’s web design plays a major role in how your brand is perceived by consumers everywhere.” In order to be noticed, the website should have a good web design. Websites that are not well designed tend to perform poorly when it comes to SEO, have low visitor count, and low conversions. Thus, having a good web design isn’t only for the aesthetics, but for the benefit of the SEO efforts as well.http://bit.ly/1Jf3UIJ

Wednesday, 22 July 2015

In the past, small businesses had to try extra-hard just to keep up with the big brands. While this is still true, the playing field has been leveled somewhat due to SEO. For one, it has given them the opportunity to go head-to-head in terms of organic search engine traffic. According to recent SEO news by , “This is possible even though big brands often spend tens of thousands on SEO without batting an eye, and even though small businesses are spread thin on budgets and staff.” Meanwhile, another from Enterpreneur.com says that small businesses can benefit a lot by focusing on a specific niche. They might think that covering multiple areas is better since it gives them a greater chance of visibility, but in reality this would spread their exposure too thin. On the other hand, focusing on what sets the business apart from the rest would give them a chance to get to the top spots of search engine rankings. Having one or a handful of keywords is better to increase visibility.http://bit.ly/1K3Q0ig

Monday, 20 July 2015

Keep SEO agile with mobile

Mobile marketing is the future! According to eMarketer, 2015 will see mobile search’s peak – and that majority of spend, organic traffic and paid clicks will come from smartphones and tablets rather than the conventional medium like desktop or laptop search. This means that having mobile-friendly and responsive websites could not be enough, and brands are expected to kick it up a notch. This suggests coming up with a mobile marketing strategy, mobile e-commerce, mobile search marketing and advertising and integrating mobile, local and social. You could also take Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test here to determine if your site passes with flying colors: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/

The Rise of Infographics and Visual Media

SERP rankings have shown that images, infographics, video and other visual media are much more appealing and significant than plain text. It is expected that a user is more likely to find information that is more related to their search query with visuals.

The Utilization of Voice Search

Voice search changes the behavior of users by moving faster than type search. As you may know, voice search is now available on Apple Siri, Google Now and Windows Cortana phones, making it even more extensive. Conversational search helps consumers answer fact, stat-based questions, to refining searches. Although Google hasn’t provided exact statistics on the dominance of voice recognition over type search yet, you can appreciate the efficiency of this search assistant system, and how it makes the entire search process so much easier for time-pressed consumers.

Be in the forefront by learning SEO predictions to watch out for this 2016 as soon as possible. This is if you’re interested in making your brand stand out online for the year to come. Good luck! For the hottest marketing news and insights, bookmark http://marketingdigest.com/

Sad as it is, people do tend to be negative. And that’s not an assumption out of thin air—a study by a team from the University of British Columbia has concluded that some people are actually genetically predisposed to view things in a negative light. And if you’re looking for negativity in a variety of shapes and sizes, the Internet is probably the place to be. An article on Entrepreneur.com entitled mentions a 2013 survey conducted by Zendesk, which found that customers are more likely to leave companies a bad review on social media than praise them. Worse, about 88 percent of more than 1,000 American respondents quipped that negative online reviews about a company or business they were considering caused them to veer away.http://bit.ly/1Jf3CSf

Saturday, 18 July 2015

It’s easy to feel like you fully understand social media marketing; however, it’s also likely for you to feel frustrated once you realize that social media marketing as you knew it changed as soon as you focused on other matters. For instance, marketing via social media typically meant putting up banner ads, optimizing for desired search engine results, or sponsoring blog entries. Then again, there’s almost always a new trend popping up on several social marketing news hubs like the Marketing Digest by the minute. The abovementioned ideas are from veteran business mentor Marty Zwilling’s Huffington Post article entitled . What the words above meant is pretty simple: in the social media marketing field, what worked like a charm yesterday may not even suffice a few days or months after.http://bit.ly/1K3PkJU

Thursday, 16 July 2015

When digital marketing analysts tell you that mobile marketing is a really big deal, they are not kidding nor exaggerating. If you’re already paying it a good amount of attention, you’re on the right track. You should still keep your eyes peeled, though, for current mobile marketing news reporting important things like these for 2015 presented by Econsultancy. No to Mobile “Dead Air” A staggering 91 percent of smartphone owners keep their device within arms’ reach on a 24/7 basis. This means marketers should be prepared to handle customers anytime. Therefore, service gaps must be filled or at least managed correctly.http://bit.ly/1K3OBIy

Wednesday, 15 July 2015

Getting negative reviews on Yelp has its ugly consequences, you wouldn’t know how many small businesses have been affected tremendously just because of criticisms on Yelp. Marketing Digest, being the online marketing news website at your service, aims to help you increase your positive Yelp reviews with the following tips:

Fill out your profile

Take advantage of this ranking factor by filling out as many of the business information fields as you can, adding your company’s work hours and attaching pictures if possible. Yelp values businesses that have filled out their profiles to the greatest intent possible, which might be an edge to have a good ranking in Yelp’s internal search results.

Move positive reviews out of the filter

Yelp uses an algorithm that filters reviews that they think are fake, and those reviews get stuck at the bottom of the company page. In line with this, make sure to check if your filter for positive reviews are stuck, since they hold no standing in the overall score. That would be really unfortunate.

Ask help from loyal customers

It wouldn’t hurt to try asking some kind words from your loyal customers or clients to post on your Yelp page. Just think of it as the online concept of word-of-mouth.

Respond to reviews

Boost the odds of getting better Yelp reputation by responding to positive reviews. Yelp’s algorithms reward business owners who are active in managing their company’s profile. Make sure that you take the time to write customized responses to each positive reviews for a more genuine feel.

Getting a flawless Yelp Reputation is a very huge advantage for your business, but don’t forget to have an incredible service too, so your customers would come back for more. We surely hope this article helped you and your business. For the hottest online marketing news and insights, feel free to visit http://marketingdigest.com/

Tuesday, 14 July 2015

Do you check out the latest PPC news over the Internet to add to your internet marketing knowledge? That’s a good practice. Additionally, you should also make sure you are not committing mistakes in using Google AdWords. Here, you can learn about such lapses so you can avoid them. The following are some common mistakes that companies commit when using Google AdWords as featured by and . Keyword Usage Oh, keywords. If there was ever any element that you can treat as the foundation of a PPC campaign, it would be this. Some companies target too broad keywords, which is ineffective because it’s unlikely for new advertisers or startups to bid to the top spot and even if you manage to do so, the expense may be too great that the revenue likely can’t justify it.http://bit.ly/1Jf2NJh

Wednesday, 8 July 2015

Business websites have become an asset since the dawn of the digital era. It has become imperative for small business owners to maintain an active online presence. And to fully enhance a business’ marketing efforts, a website must be mobile-optimized and responsive to drive traffic, convert leads into customers, and boost conversions.

Today, people are using their mobile devices and tablets to browse the web, find businesses, and purchase products and services. There are many reasons why having a responsive website is important and here are just a few pieces of news and insights:

A responsive web design provides a great user experience

If your website employs a responsive design, users can easily browse through your content. Offering a great user experience is key to converting leads and keeping existing customers.

Websites load faster when they are responsive

If your site takes too long to load, search engines will perceive it as low-quality, and may assign it to lower rankings.

Google prefers responsive websites

Going responsive means having a single URL, making it easier for search engines, particularly Google, to crawl through and evaluate your site.

Majority of social media referrals come from mobile.

Users regularly share social media and blog content via smartphones. When they see that your content adjusts properly to their smartphones, or is properly optimized, visitors will turn into customers.

What are the other advantages of having a responsive website for a small business?
For a weekly dose of web design related news and insights, subscribe here: http://marketingdigest.com/

Tuesday, 7 July 2015

Every year brings new trends, especially in the world of content marketing. According to the latest content marketing news, businesses that hope to flourish online in 2015 would do well to know what trends consumers will be leaning towards this year. Mashable’s 10 Predictions for Content Marketing in 2015 says that consumer welfare will be the focus of this year’s content marketing efforts; that is, learning more about consumer interests, needs and culture so that businesses can mold their strategies accordingly. Businesses will want to understand the way users conduct their searches, such as keywords and related terms, trending topics or expectations about their brand. This will enable business owners and marketers to relate to their target audience better and determine how to hold their attention, and ultimately, their business.http://bit.ly/1GncSlr

Sunday, 5 July 2015

Huffington Post contributor and marketing guru Matt Dion was among the numerous attendees of the recent Adobe Summit in Salt Lake City, UT. In his article, Why Omni-Channel Commerce Could Cost You Your Job (And 4 Things You Can Do About It), Dion talks about a significant e-commerce marketing news story: the growing interest on omni-channel commerce and the challenges it presents to retailers. Many retailers get excited about embarking on an omni-channel marketing journey, then start to wonder if their initial effort is even worth it. An omni-channel approach is indeed no cakewalk. According to the article What Is The Return On Omni-Channel?, going omni-channel requires a massive amount of effort. Inventory processes must be upgraded, websites need to be updated, and employees have to undergo training to ensure everything is properly coordinated.http://bit.ly/1GncS55

Friday, 3 July 2015

It is said that in Internet marketing, content is a thing of constant and rapid change. According to an article from business and online marketing news source Forbes titled Ways Content Marketing is Going to Change in 2015, “From what you write and where you publish to how you disseminate that content and engage with readers, the ideology behind what’s effective and what isn’t is continually changing – and usually for the better.” This is a challenge to marketers to keep up with the trends in order to be successful. One of the noticeable trends is the better use of visual content. Internet users have been craving for images, videos and graphics and this can mostly be seen on social media. It has become evident that visual content performs better than static text and so marketing strategies have to adapt to that.http://bit.ly/1GncVh3

Marketing has evolved into many forms. The old adage “There is nothing permanent except change” applies to many things, and it applies to digital marketing as well. Over time, we have gathered news and insights about what we see as avoidable mistakes.

Seeing online marketing as a marketing “Add On”

Online marketing is often bypassed by some businesses, and this attitude is no longer acceptable. Online marketing is not an option anymore; in fact, in today’s world, it can often be the central consumer awareness and engagement platform.

Ignoring conversions

You may have built websites, social media networks, and top rankings, but you don’t have to stop there. Convert these into useful data and take the opportunity to collect contact information from them. These can even be collected through subscriptions or interactive banners.

Inactivity

You have launched websites, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest to make sure consumer touch points are available. If you remain inactive, it is much better to launch fewer assets, keep them updated, and be more skillful in leading consumers to these social media accounts.

Not doing mobile and tablet optimization

Mobile optimized websites and apps are the crowning glory of your online marketing strategy. Many sites that are not mobile and tablet optimized get buried at the bottom of search engines rankings; if your site is not mobile optimized, it could be one of them.

These are just a few online marketing mistakes that we’ve observed. To stay on top of your digital marketing game in 2015, subscribe to weekly news and insights here: http://marketingdigest.com/

Wednesday, 1 July 2015

Local marketing is a great way for small businesses to make their mark and connect with old and new customers in their area. It also serves as an opportunity for them to compete with the bigger brands on more equal grounds. Customers who are searching for something are more likely to take interest in messaging that cater to their own location. According to the latest local marketing news by Forbes, 2015 will be an interesting year for the local online marketing space. A guest article by Yodle CEO Court Cunningham that talks about 10 Local Marketing Predictions for 2015 says: “Technology providers jostling for a bigger slice of the local pie will keep raising their game by offering better and more comprehensive services to help small businesses.” This is certainly good news for businesses who are looking to grow and make a mark in their industry.http://bit.ly/1GncROs

About Me

Megan Pearson is an avid online marketing consultant and evangelist. She is also passionate about design and fashion. Being part of Marketing Digest allows her to keep track of developments and innovation in the industry and throw in some of her design concepts.